Chickpea

home life

Chickpea — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 13:51:57 +0000

ahhh it feels good to be home

after spending almost all of Friday in a car, I was eager to wake up early on Saturday and get moving! I churned out 10 miles in 71 minutes (perhaps a new PR) and managed to clean out my time-warp/ycirca 2000 bedroom. I had bags of old clothes, notes, movies etc. from my highschool days (and some college mementos, as well) that needed to finally be sorted through. All in all I managed to donate 4 garbage bags of sweaters, shoes and unopened shower goodies (Hello Bath & Body Works!) I love giving goods away.

It has been amazing to finally sleep. I normally need melatonin to sleep through the night. I try and get 8 hours of sleep, but I find myself groggy and struggling with headaches almost every day. I can never feel truly rested anymore, it seems. Friday night I struggled to sleep well, but last night I slept like a BABY. Tonight I hope for the same, as well. Maybe I can return from this vaca a little more rested and at peace!

Today calls for a 5 mile run, some yoga, and a trip to Illinois to visit my family. I hope to sleep in the car, too, to catch up on even more zzzzs!

I finally saw Eat, Pray, Love! Not as great as I would have hoped…but certainly not BAD. Good lord Julia Roberts is gorgeous!

xoxo

Happy SUNday — may your smile and kindness shine light on the lives of those around you!

self love

Chickpea — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:13:49 +0000

I can’t say that I will keep up with following this challenge absolutely EVERY day, becuase blogging is something I want to be an outlet for me, not something I see as a daily task, but THIS is absolutely something that I love. The idea is to take the month of September to focus on self confidence, acceptance, and love! Check it out.

Today I want to give a shout out to:

My “core”: This is the body part I tend to give myself the greatest grief for – which is totally unfair! My stomach is strong, it has crunched, laughed, and felt butterflies for 23 years now. I am someone who truly follows their gut and gives in to the instincts that I feel. While my stomach may not be a slim concave of “perfection” it is now perfect to me. It will grow and expand one day, too, to hold a baby which is the most beautiful thing in the world.

My legs: I have eaily run over 4,ooo miles in just the past handful of years. My legs are strong yet flexible, long for my short height, and my vehicle of choice. Thank you, legs, for carrying me everywhere I’ve ever wanted to go.

My dimple: That’s right –singular – just one dimple. It is on my left cheek and it is a deep, beautiful and unique mark. Inhereted from my father, it is something that people ALWAYS comment on.

What do YOU love about you?

link time

Chickpea — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:43:44 +0000

here’s a list of reads, recipes, etc. to start out the day:

A savory, yet sweet breakfast combo

My favorite look from the Emmy’s (not to mention a great actress from a great TV show!)

10 Ways to Live the Life You’ve Always Wanted

DWTS – Do you care? Who will you root for?

The dog I’m dying to have

And with this quick list, I’m off to shower and hop on the bus for work. Yesterday I didn’t post because I woke up feeling unbelievably dizzy and nauseus. I think I was extremely dehydrated. I ran 8 miles on Saturday in extreme heat, then went to the State Fair with my parents for 4 hours. After having a few drinks Saturday night with friends and drinking nothing but pop on Sunday – my head was all out of sorts Monday morning.

I went for a light jog last night and then got an early night of sleep. I’m happy to report I’m almost back to 100% and will be making it a day of kick-butt work, exercise, and cleaning. Good lord my apartment needs it

xoxo

old school friday

Chickpea — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:31:32 +0000

every friday I am going to celebrate all that is wonderful, classy, and old-school. i think it’s important to remember all wonderful advice, fashion, and trends that came before…especially this:

old medical advice: To cure a cough: take a hair from the coughing person’s head, put it between two slices of buttered bread, feed it to a dog, and say, “Eat well you hound, may you be sick and I be sound.”

happy friday all <3

time for thinkin’ ahead

Chickpea — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 11:24:19 +0000

Video of the Day — Wake Up Everybody!

Quote of the Day: “Stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone ought to be.” ~Elizabeth Gilbert – Eat Pray Love

thrice is nice

Chickpea — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:56:13 +0000

Three random facts about me:
1) I have eaten an entire jar of peanut butter in only three days.
2) I still consider going back to school for a complete career change — I would kill to be a high school English teacher.
3) I care more about having pajamas that I love than work clothes

Three things that drive me crazy:
1) Waiting in lines — I hate standing still and waiting five minutes to check out (which only takes 5 seconds, individually)
2) People who can’t make eye contact
3) Unmade beds

Three goals for today:
1) Finish cleaning my office (there are files in there still from ’02! It’s like a freaking library!) Also, prepare notes, etc. for the “new” person starting soon!
2) Get 6 miles in
3) Write a supportive letter for the boy, who is really tackling an extreme project at work right now.

Hope you make it a great one xo

good morning, sunshine!

Chickpea — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:15:13 +0000

Ahhh — is there any better way to start the day than with The Morning Express with Robin Meade and a delicious breakfast?! I think not!

Yesterday I ended up feeling much more energetic than I could have expected! We are interviewing for a position at work right now, since my office mate left us with only a four day notice. While it was nice to step up and taken on the challenge that she left us with, we really need to replace her. Yesterday I met with four candidates and I found two that I really like!

I love noticing how an interviewee sits, what their non verbal behavior is, and how they control the pitch and speed of their voice when they get nervous. It’s simply facinating to me! Spacing these meetings out every few hours meant my day literally FLEW by!

Today I will meet with possibly two more and then I am meeting a dear friend of mine after work who I have known since high school! She is in town visiting family for a little bit, so we are going for a nice long walk where we can catch up once again. She’s one of those friends where weeks, months, and years go by without a word exchanged between us, but once we’re together it’s like nothing has changed whatsoever. I love her!

Challenge for today: Give three genuine compliments to friends, family members, or even complete strangers today.

Quote of the day: Succes is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time.

ummmmmm, monday, really?

Chickpea — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:01:17 +0000

oof. monday morning.

normally i’m gung ho for Mondays. I’m eerily optimistic, I feel well rested from the weekend, and I’m ready to kick another week’s worth of work-related bootie.

not this monday — at least not yet.

the boy and i have been house sitting this weekend and catching up on Dexter — our favorite serial-killer themed TV show. of course, last night, he had to leave, as his cousin drove into town to help out with a huge project the boy has at work. this left me all alone in a house that is NOT mine. needless to say every light in the house was on all night, i slept on a couch (not bed in the basement) so that i was closer to a door if i needed to escape, and I had Baby Mama (tina fey = love) on repeat ALL night long. I woke up every 1.5 hours to either the movie finishing of the lovely dog barking (which also caused my heart rate to escilate at an alarming rate)

today will be interesting

I have a small mountain of work to get through once I get to my desk, and my roomie is home from a two week clinicals trip for her nursing school. I have two friends visiting MN this week and my parents are coming for the weekend. LOTS of stuff to do this week and I didn’t exactly start the week off on the right foot! I’m someone who needs her sleep like nobody’s business.

To try and counter my lack of sleep, I”m going to head out for a quick run in a few minutes and then proceed to drink a FULL cup of coffee first thing at work. I am not a big coffee person so to actually drink a full cup means a (hopefully) butt load of energy!

Here’s to YOUR monday and hopes that it’s off to a much brighter start than mine xoxo

Quote of the Day: “He who every morning plans the transaction of the day and follows out that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through the maze of the most busy life. But where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incidence, chaos will soon reign.” ~Victor Hugo

new beginnings

Chickpea — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 19:09:45 +0000

Is it any shocker that my posting has been completely VOID of any consistency? I couldn’t really say much before, but in the past few months I was job searching because I knew in the depth of my heart that I wasn’t living the life that I knew I wanted. I was in a dead-end job, living alone in a city I despised, far away from my family and boy friend. I was lucky beyond belief to land a freaking AMAZING job in downtown Minneapolis right at the same time that my boyfriend was relocated there (about three months ago). We literally arrived within one week of each other (me first, of course! ha)

Since then, I have secured an AMAZING apartment in Uptown, MN where I am surrounded by vitality and energy everywhere I look. It is a complete 180 from living in GB. This truly feels RIGHT to me — I know this where I am supposed to be!

I have spent the past few months adjusting, spending time with the boy, learning to balance. It’s been a whirlwind. But of course, if I’m not pushing myself to learn something new intellectually or accomplish something physically, I’m not happy! Now that the whirlwind of the move has died down some, I find myself yearning for more; to meet new people here, to travel deeper into my yoga practice, to shop, to knit, there are a whole host of things I’m just itching to get started on.

The question is, where do I begin?

Random: What I’m reading: Mercury in Retrograde. Song I can’t get enough of: I Love the Way You Lie. Yoga pose I want to get into (someday! lol): King Pigeon Pose

Quote for today: “The only completely consistent people are the dead.” ~Aldous Huxley

Heart

Chickpea — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:51:21 +0000

There is a desire within each of us, in the deep center of ourselves that we call our heart. We were born with it, it is never completely satisfied, and it never dies. We are often unaware of it, but it is always awake. It is the human desire for love. Every person in this earth yearns to love, to be loved, to know love. Our true identity, our reason for being, is to be found in this desire…love is the ‘why’ of life: why we are functioning at all, what we want to be efficient for… I am convinced [love] is the fundamental energy of the human spirit, the fuel on which we run, the wellspring of our vitality. And grace, which is the flowing, creative activity of love itself, is what makes all goodness possible. Love should come first; it should be the beginning of and the reason for everything.

I stole this from the lovely Caitlin, who continues to inspire me often. Thank you!